* ASUS A8N-SLI experiences/results/issues

[DiNGuS]

I have just put on order the A8N-SLI Deluxe model - just a question on whether IDE-RAID is supported on-board or will I need to be purchasing a seperate controller for this?? (I currently run 2x200GB 8MB disks RAID 0 on my existing machine and hope to move them over to the new machine - a clean SATA 200GB disk will be used for boot).

 

[sreams]

Originally posted by: DiNGuS
I have just put on order the A8N-SLI Deluxe model - just a question on whether IDE-RAID is supported on-board or will I need to be purchasing a seperate controller for this?? (I currently run 2x200GB 8MB disks RAID 0 on my existing machine and hope to move them over to the new machine - a clean SATA 200GB disk will be used for boot).

IDE RAID is supported by the NVidia disk controller.

-S

 

[GuitarDaddy]

What a bummer!

I recieved and installed my second 6600GT tonight. Got everything up and running, and SLI enabled. Played some games for 10-20min (awesome). Then ran Aquamark3, and blew away my previous best score. Ran 3dmark and was marveling at the increased FPS, then BOOM. The system powered down!!!

When I try and boot back up, I get "System failed VGA test". I opened the case and tried powering up again, and the fan won't spin up on the card in the primary slot(original card), and again VGA test failed.
At this point I'm pretty sure the card is a goner. But I tried reseating the card, and all the standard BS anyway, but to no avail. So I pulled the original card out, moved the new one over to the primary slot.
I eventually had to clear CMOS, but now I'm back up with a single card.

So I'll be RMA'ing to Newegg(love newegg). Well at least I got about 30min. of SLI goodness before my bubble burst. I have had great luck up until now, and with some of the problems others have had I guess its only fair that I suffer a little adversity.

 

[jlambvo]

Regarding the Audigy 2 problem, I just got mine working for a 3rd run (apparently), just for kicks I moved the card back to PCI slot 1 (hey, that's where it was working originally) and cleared the CMOS. I had to let it discharge for a lot longer than it usually takes, AND I disconnected the mainboard power connector. Left it sit like that for a good 5-10 minutes. Then it would boot. Just letting it discharge for 20 seconds or so didn't do anything. Without making any adjustments in the BIOS it has booted fine and seems to work properly.

For those that have it working, it sounds like the beta bios isn't a problem, but are you overclocking? One theory I have is a problem with the PCI lock that is apparently present in the 1003.005 beta BIOS. Is it possible this isn't working consistently and causing some problems (PCI is trying to run too fast)?

Poking around on some other tech forums, I've heard reports of people on Asus boards (not necessarily the A8N) having problems booting with the onboard sound controller disabled. I don't recall having issues with this, anyone else? Could this have anything to do with this issue? There seem to be a lot of us...

 

[SkyBum]

This cutting edge technology.......seems to cut both ways....

I envy those people who have managed to get this board up and running w/o any significant problems. There's hope in that at least.

 

[SRoode]

IDE RAID is supported by the NVidia disk controller.

Sreams,

I have not been able to get the NVidia Disk Controller to work. When I try installing the drivers off the CD while in Windows, it says I have to reboot. When I do, the Windows logo comes up and it gets to the point where I should get a login screen... But the PC stops and the screen stays black.

Am I doing something wrong? I don't want RAID, just the NVidia IDE Drivers. Right now, my pc is using the standard dual channel PCI IDE Controller.

 

[century child]

The slot isn't bad, check the memory population rules in the manual. It states that with only 1 memory module installed, it must be installed in B1.

 

[smc13]

century child,

The slot is bad. I have two DIMMs. Both work fine in slot B1. However, when one is in B1 and I put the second into A1, I get two beeps and no video. I doesn't matter which DIMM. Put a DIMM in A1 after putting a DIMM in B1 and I get beeps and no video.

Steve

 

[Vedder323]

well, looks like I just got a bad board... I was up half the might working on it, and even tried a format with the card in the board to begin with. No dice. Im gonna call Zip and see if they can work out an advance RMA of some type. For now... im gonna see if I can get a decent overclock with my system. A quick question, does this baord need any adjustement to make the pci lock work? Is it enabled out of the box?

 

[angeLCD]

Im having a hard time installing a Dlink 802.11G wireless card into my a8n-sli. After installing the newest drivers for the wireless card (dwl-g520), windows hangs as the windows load screen fades in from the boot screen. Any suggestions??

 

[Tanclearas]

Damn GD, I'm sorry. I've been wondering about that particular situation. I've had great success with my board, but I have yet to try out SLI. I'm even tempted to try to get another card even temporarily just to test with. The only problem there is once I have it, if it works, I'd probably have trouble letting it go!

 

[F4810]

Originally posted by: JMag

Originally posted by: F4810

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
F4810

I see you are using the 1002 bios. You may want to try the 1003-05 beta bios. It has many more memory settings, you may be able to get a better OC with this one.

I tried that also but it gave the same results. I prefer to stick to this for now until final versions are released. Plus I saw those extra settings and havent a clue what to do with them. But I did try my memory at 2T 2.5-3-3-10 at 2.85 volts and it still would not clock over 200mhz.

I have been unable to get my board to work at 2.5 CAS no matter what. My memory is rated at 2.5-3-3-8 at 263mhz. Although I can run 2-2-2-10 or 2-3-2-10 at 200-225mhz no prob.
I highly recommend trying with either 3-3-3-10 or 3-4-4-10. Honestly you will not even notice the difference between CAS 2.5 and 3

I am unsure as to the core problem with cas 2.5. It could be the board or cpu mem controller or the combination of both, because this memory runs fine at 2.5-3-3-7 @ 250mhz on my p4 865pe system.

OK I tried 3-3-3-10, 3-4-4-10, 3-3-3-11, 3-4-4-11 all at 1T and 2T and at voltages from 2.7v to 2.85v. All failed memtest and all seemed to fail at the same place when at 40% complete. My RAM is no good for O/Cing above 200mhz. Is there any way I could get these changed under warranty?

Secondly I figure if 200mhz is my ceiling for the RAM then that is why I cant O/C my CPU over 2350 as my ram is running at 196 with the 6:5 divider. So I need to use a lower divider. However when I try to set the DDR333 and DDR266 dividers in the bios, my computer wont boot and the bios freezes. So I am not sure why they are not working. Any ideas???

Failing that at the moment I boot with Mem at Auto and CPU at 235x10 and this works fine as the mobo sets the 6:5 divider itself. Now does anyone know what FSB I have to set to have the next lower divider kick in? If I know this I can try to boot at that FSB as then try to increase from there in AI booster.

One final thing. I switched the sli selector to the correct way round and it gave me a slight increase in 3D mark 05. About 100 points.

 

[century child]

Originally posted by: smc13
century child,

The slot is bad. I have two DIMMs. Both work fine in slot B1. However, when one is in B1 and I put the second into A1, I get two beeps and no video. I doesn't matter which DIMM. Put a DIMM in A1 after putting a DIMM in B1 and I get beeps and no video.

Steve

Ah, ok I misunderstood then. More likely than a bad slot, your RAM probably doesn't like running dual channel. Do the DIMM's match exactly, same type and revision? You might try installing one DIMM, setting some pretty loose timings in BIOS, then installing the second one.

 

[JMag]

Originally posted by: F4810

Originally posted by: JMag

Originally posted by: F4810

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
F4810

I see you are using the 1002 bios. You may want to try the 1003-05 beta bios. It has many more memory settings, you may be able to get a better OC with this one.

I tried that also but it gave the same results. I prefer to stick to this for now until final versions are released. Plus I saw those extra settings and havent a clue what to do with them. But I did try my memory at 2T 2.5-3-3-10 at 2.85 volts and it still would not clock over 200mhz.

I have been unable to get my board to work at 2.5 CAS no matter what. My memory is rated at 2.5-3-3-8 at 263mhz. Although I can run 2-2-2-10 or 2-3-2-10 at 200-225mhz no prob.
I highly recommend trying with either 3-3-3-10 or 3-4-4-10. Honestly you will not even notice the difference between CAS 2.5 and 3

I am unsure as to the core problem with cas 2.5. It could be the board or cpu mem controller or the combination of both, because this memory runs fine at 2.5-3-3-7 @ 250mhz on my p4 865pe system.

OK I tried 3-3-3-10, 3-4-4-10, 3-3-3-11, 3-4-4-11 all at 1T and 2T and at voltages from 2.7v to 2.85v. All failed memtest and all seemed to fail at the same place when at 40% complete. My RAM is no good for O/Cing above 200mhz. Is there any way I could get these changed under warranty?

Secondly I figure if 200mhz is my ceiling for the RAM then that is why I cant O/C my CPU over 2350 as my ram is running at 196 with the 6:5 divider. So I need to use a lower divider. However when I try to set the DDR333 and DDR266 dividers in the bios, my computer wont boot and the bios freezes. So I am not sure why they are not working. Any ideas???

Failing that at the moment I boot with Mem at Auto and CPU at 235x10 and this works fine as the mobo sets the 6:5 divider itself. Now does anyone know what FSB I have to set to have the next lower divider kick in? If I know this I can try to boot at that FSB as then try to increase from there in AI booster.

One final thing. I switched the sli selector to the correct way round and it gave me a slight increase in 3D mark 05. About 100 points.

Well the memory timings option was worth a shot. I know that my memory has a ceiling of ~230 @ 2-2-2-9 and then about 2.5-3-3-9 I can do at least 270 (bootable, although this was on an 865pe and was unstable b/c the chipset really cant handle over ~260 ) So Tthere is definately scalability in my RAM... I would recommend TCCD memory to people, although the really good stuff like the highend Gskill and OCZ bin's won't really help much b/c so far the max at 1t I can get on this board is 239.6mhz using clockgen.

Your memory was PC3200 right? I can't remember and dont really want to look back in the thread...
If so then at least it is doing it's advertised job...

Here are the steps I take to get my Speed UP
1. Disable all the crap in the BIOS you don't need ( serial ports, game ports, whatever. Except I leave all the channels on the Nvidia SATA controller and IDE controller, and the Nvidia Ethernet)
2. Set the FSB to 201 in the BIOS
3. Set CPU Voltage ( I put mine at 1.6v )
4. Set Ram Votls ( Fo me 2.9v, but for you it should rated value)
5. Select DDR333 in the BIOS
6. Save and Exit
7. Boot Windows
8. Use clockgen to increase FSB to desired level

This is all with 1003.005. If your computer still isn't booting with the DDR333 setting... Well I dunno, I haven't heard of RAM that can't run lower than their rated speeds, but maybe it is a possibility.

I know that whenever I tried to underclock my 9200SE's memory (it is a backup PCI card), it would freeze... However, they are two completely different animals.

 

[JMag]

I also forgot to mention... I also used clockgen to increase the VID which seems to give the Board more voltage than without. I haven't even pushed it all the way cause CPU-Z is already readin 1.66V at times (although it fluctuates) and I am thinking with stock cooling I shouldn't really go any farther...

But obviously your CPU has to be able to handle these sppeds. It seems that ther eare alot of people with semi newer winchesters that can reach 2.5 easy, I have even seen a few screenshots at 2.8-3.0

 

[nubreed000]

this is unf****in-believable. I finally get my card, but noooo, now I can't get my computer to work. First, the damn motherboard can't detect my A drive (its looking for drive B!!) and now when I try installing windows after some screwing around with it, it says "invalid windows CD"...

i'm just about ready to chuck this p.o.s out the window and be done with it.

 

[spearsd]

Hi, all,
I came across the following thread and added my own experience after battling to get my system stable today. 1003-005 seems to somehow trash itself once you start changing OC settings. Just thought I'd cross-ref this for people having 1003-005 probs and/or interested in the details

-spearsd

Thread with posts about 1003-005 strangeness...

 

[Chugworth]

Originally posted by: jlambvo
Regarding the Audigy 2 problem, I just got mine working for a 3rd run (apparently), just for kicks I moved the card back to PCI slot 1 (hey, that's where it was working originally) and cleared the CMOS. I had to let it discharge for a lot longer than it usually takes, AND I disconnected the mainboard power connector. Left it sit like that for a good 5-10 minutes. Then it would boot. Just letting it discharge for 20 seconds or so didn't do anything. Without making any adjustments in the BIOS it has booted fine and seems to work properly.

For those that have it working, it sounds like the beta bios isn't a problem, but are you overclocking? One theory I have is a problem with the PCI lock that is apparently present in the 1003.005 beta BIOS. Is it possible this isn't working consistently and causing some problems (PCI is trying to run too fast)?

Poking around on some other tech forums, I've heard reports of people on Asus boards (not necessarily the A8N) having problems booting with the onboard sound controller disabled. I don't recall having issues with this, anyone else? Could this have anything to do with this issue? There seem to be a lot of us...

I have this problem, and I have never done any overclocking.

But I've gone about five days without the Audigy 2 (?) crash. Then today it happened again. I was defragging partitions on two hard drives at once, while downloading a lot of email into Outlook 2003. Right when Outlook finished downloading the email and its blue transparent window popped up, everything hanged. What interested me was that was about the time Outlook would play the new mail sound. I didn't have my speakers on so I didn't here whether or not it even played it though.

When this happened in the past, Windows would always get stuck in a loop in the XP loading screen. The blue bar would keep moving, but nothing would happen. But this time rather than reinstall XP, I unplugged the computer for exactly five minutes - I even timed it. When I booted back up, Windows loaded fine and is working fine. This is interesting because that is the same method I used to fix the dead nVidia network port.

But now I am more convinced that this issue of Windows hanging and getting stuck in a loop in the loading screen is related to the Audigy 2. I don't want to get rid of my Audigy 2 though. If this issue doesn't happen often, and it is recoverable, I guess I can deal with it. Maybe it will be fixed in a future bios/driver release.

I am very curious about this though. I may want to go a few days without the Audigy 2 just to see if it really is the cause...

 

[raincityboy]

Hello, I have just got my system put together, and I am having a problem. I was hoping someone here could point me in the right direction.
On start up the board tells me "System Failed Memory Test." As my sig says I am using Corsair VS1GBKIT400. I have tried the sticks in multiple configurations, single and dual.
?How can you"Make sure that your DIMMs are not defective?" As it states on 3-3 of the manual.
?Could it be the mobo?:frown:
Any help is appreciated.

 

[smc13]

Originally posted by: century child

Ah, ok I misunderstood then. More likely than a bad slot, your RAM probably doesn't like running dual channel. Do the DIMM's match exactly, same type and revision? You might try installing one DIMM, setting some pretty loose timings in BIOS, then installing the second one.

They better be the same. I bought these:

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=20-146-890&depa=1

Two of the same DIMMs in a package.

OCZ platinum Rev 2, reviewed by anandtech and that a lot of people seem to be using in this motherboard. They work fine in dual channel (or at least they should - Since I can't get them to work I can't really say for sure).

I agree that a bad DIMM slot doesn't sound likely, but they are a matched pair of ram, both of which work. Why else would they not work in slot A1?

Steve Cohen

 

[user1234]

Originally posted by: nubreed000
this is unf****in-believable. I finally get my card, but noooo, now I can't get my computer to work. First, the damn motherboard can't detect my A drive (its looking for drive B!!) and now when I try installing windows after some screwing around with it, it says "invalid windows CD"...

i'm just about ready to chuck this p.o.s out the window and be done with it.

hey, I'll take it off your hands, so you won't be in trouble for throwing trash on the street.

 

[bap4201]

yeah, i'll take it too.

 

[jlambvo]

Originally posted by: Chugworth

Originally posted by: jlambvo
Regarding the Audigy 2 problem, I just got mine working for a 3rd run (apparently), just for kicks I moved the card back to PCI slot 1 (hey, that's where it was working originally) and cleared the CMOS. I had to let it discharge for a lot longer than it usually takes, AND I disconnected the mainboard power connector. Left it sit like that for a good 5-10 minutes. Then it would boot. Just letting it discharge for 20 seconds or so didn't do anything. Without making any adjustments in the BIOS it has booted fine and seems to work properly.

For those that have it working, it sounds like the beta bios isn't a problem, but are you overclocking? One theory I have is a problem with the PCI lock that is apparently present in the 1003.005 beta BIOS. Is it possible this isn't working consistently and causing some problems (PCI is trying to run too fast)?

Poking around on some other tech forums, I've heard reports of people on Asus boards (not necessarily the A8N) having problems booting with the onboard sound controller disabled. I don't recall having issues with this, anyone else? Could this have anything to do with this issue? There seem to be a lot of us...

I have this problem, and I have never done any overclocking.

But I've gone about five days without the Audigy 2 (?) crash. Then today it happened again. I was defragging partitions on two hard drives at once, while downloading a lot of email into Outlook 2003. Right when Outlook finished downloading the email and its blue transparent window popped up, everything hanged. What interested me was that was about the time Outlook would play the new mail sound. I didn't have my speakers on so I didn't here whether or not it even played it though.

When this happened in the past, Windows would always get stuck in a loop in the XP loading screen. The blue bar would keep moving, but nothing would happen. But this time rather than reinstall XP, I unplugged the computer for exactly five minutes - I even timed it. When I booted back up, Windows loaded fine and is working fine. This is interesting because that is the same method I used to fix the dead nVidia network port.

But now I am more convinced that this issue of Windows hanging and getting stuck in a loop in the loading screen is related to the Audigy 2. I don't want to get rid of my Audigy 2 though. If this issue doesn't happen often, and it is recoverable, I guess I can deal with it. Maybe it will be fixed in a future bios/driver release.

I am very curious about this though. I may want to go a few days without the Audigy 2 just to see if it really is the cause...

Hmm, that's interesting, because it seems that if I have a really bad hang with the Audigy in and it won't reboot immediately, it sometimes will work if I just leave it sitting shut down for long enough (without discharging the CMOS!). It isn't a temperature related issue, I don't think my CPU never even hits 50C overclocked.

What does letting the computer sit, turned off, do exactly??

Is anyone having this problem with a non-Creative sound card, or other PCI devices?

 

[Chugworth]

Originally posted by: jlambvo
Hmm, that's interesting, because it seems that if I have a really bad hang with the Audigy in and it won't reboot immediately, it sometimes will work if I just leave it sitting shut down for long enough (without discharging the CMOS!). It isn't a temperature related issue, I don't think my CPU never even hits 50C overclocked.

What does letting the computer sit, turned off, do exactly??

Is anyone having this problem with a non-Creative sound card, or other PCI devices?

I removed my Audigy 2, and also my TV card. Now I'm using the onboard sound. I'll try this for a few days and see if it crashes.

I REALLY hope it doesn't crash now...

 

[user1234]

I got the board today and built the pc (3000+) but haven't overclocked yet. Just wanted to say I'm impressed with Asus quality, now I understand why they call this product deluxe. Also this was the easiest build ever, everything worked without any problems, I didn't even forget to connect any wires or anything else. On the downside, the chipset fan is noisy - I can hear it from inside the closed case, and it's a little annoying.